"Lunchboxes"

Two years ago my son asked me to make him a food themed quilt, featuring some of his favorite snacks and food.  I struggled with how to go about doing this since the only patterns I could find were canning jars.  I didn't feel that a quilt with canning jar blocks would be appropriate for a boy... Haha!

Then I found a pattern called "Lunchboxes" and just had to buy it! 

Today, January 27th, 2015, my son turned 15... We celebrated his birthday over this past weekend, and I gifted him the long awaited for food themed quilt.  I am so glad he still loves it and didn't feel too old for it!

Here are some pictures...

The next two photos are closeups right after it was long-armed, but before binding was added.

The next three photos are pictures of just the quilt top before it was long armed.

Vacation Time: Block 1 update

I like this block so much that I decided to make more than one.  So as I participate in Pat Sloan's 2015 Mystery QAL: Vacation Time, I will be making 4 quilts total instead of just one.

Here are my blocks for the first step... (There are 2 skull blocks, but I wasn't sure if I'd like dark or light color ways better until after making them... I like the light color way better).

Note: I am strictly using all stash fabric for these quilt projects and won't be buying any fabric for them... It's part of my goal to use up stash fabric that's been sitting around for way too long.

Another Pat Sloan Mystery QAL!

Last year I participated in Pat Sloan's Globetrotting Mystery QAL, and my quilt top is off at the long-armers waiting to be quilted.

Here's a couple pictures of my Globetrotting mystery quilt (quilt top only... Completed quilt photos will be published in a few months when it's completely done)...

Now I'm participating in Pat Sloan's 2015 mystery quilt project called "Vacation Time."  I plan to make 3 or 4 versions of this new mystery quilt... I've started with a skull theme to use up some skull fabric from my stash... Here's a picture of the first step...January's block:

I have some Harley Davidson fabric I plan to use for another version, and then I want to find some cute or pretty fabric from my stash to put into another version.  I love this block and how fantastic it works for fussy cutting focal fabrics!

"Candy Store" - A Scrappy Quilt and Bloggers Quilt Festival

I'm so excited!  Today starts the 2014 Bloggers Quilt Festival...

...and I'm entering my recently finished "Candy Store" quilt in the Scrappy Quilt category.

 The picture below shows the back of the quilt.
It's hard to see in the picture,

but both the gold and the aqua fabrics are brick patterns.

I used all sorts of scraps and leftover fabrics from my stash to make this quilt.

I saw the pattern for this quilt in my Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, May/June 2012 magazine and knew I had to make it.  I LOVE this pattern!  Plus it was a fun quilt to make.

My son and I like this quilt so much that we are keeping it for ourselves.  (I say this because I never keep any of the quilts I make...I always sell, donate or give them as gifts).

I'd like to thank Amy Ellis over at AmysCreativeSide.com for coordinating the Bloggers Quilt Festival!  And I'd like to thank the the prize donors for all the wonderful prizes each of us has a chance at winning!

Paper Piecing ending in a "Galaxy Explosion"

I VERY recently learned how to paper-piece, thanks to a friend of mine in the Tuesday Quilters group that I belong to.  I am hooked!  I love paper-piecing, and have already started going nuts making blocks I had saved patterns for, in the hopes that someday I'd be able to make them.  The end result... a lap quilt I'm calling "Galaxy Explosion" (name for the quilt was suggested by a church friend).

I made the following blocks...

 Above: "Solaris"

 Above: "Sweet Tweets"

 Above: "Mariner's Compass"

Above: "Zeppelin"

And then the quilt...

 Above: Top of quilt, obviously
Below: Back of quilt

 The gorgeous long-arm quilting was done by:

Chantel Mundschau
Weyauwega, WI

Pooh's Birthday Bouquet

This was such a fun quilt to make!  Tedious, but fun.  I had a request to make a girly Winnie the Pooh quilt in pinks and purples.  I had a really tough time finding girly Pooh fabric...everything in local stores was geared towards babies or boyish colors.  So I got some flowery Pooh fabric from a seller on eBay, but the amount was limited, so I picked out the pattern for the quilt AFTER I got the Pooh fabric.  I had to pick a pattern that only needed as much Pooh fabric as I was able to get.  Once I got the Pooh fabric, I sat and leafed through all my quilt magazines until I came across this pattern.  I thought it was perfect...there were flowers in the Pooh fabric, and flower shapes on the quilt!  Once the pattern was picked out, I was then able to go shopping for the rest of the coordinating fabrics that I needed, and here's the end result...

Note: The pattern I used for this quilt is actually called "Little Girl's Garden"

and can be found in Fons & Porter's Scrap Quilts, Summer 2012 magazine.

*This quilt was long-arm quilted by Chantel Mundschau, Weyauwega, WI.

Hexagon Garden Quilt

Well, I finally had incentive to finish this quilt, which was on my UFO pile for quite some time.  I needed a wedding gift, so I got it done on time to give to the bride and groom.

The quilt is called: Hexagon Garden.
Pattern for this quilt is in the book: More Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts, pg 82.

I used Moda's Seasonal Little Gatherings: Primitive Gatherings Jelly Roll for this quilt.  (Outer borders of black and brown fabrics were just coordinating fabrics from my stash).

Note:  This quilt sat folded for awhile on my UFO pile before I finally put the binding on.  As you can see, the fold lines/wrinkles don't come out.  I've recently found out that fold lines stay in a quilt permanently and that there's a certain way to fold quilts in order to prevent those lines.  Here's a quilt folding tutorial I found on another quilter's blog:  How to Fold and Store Quilts

This third photo shows an up-close view of the beautiful long-arm quilting.
I cut and pieced this quilt, but the long-arm quilting was done by
Meandering Mary, New London, WI.

Having Fun With Spoonflower!

Have you ever heard of Spoonflower?  It's a company that allows you to create and design your own fabrics, wallpapers, decals and gift wrap!  I recently began playing around with photos I've taken... one example is a photo I took last year of a bucket of sour cherries... did some editing... and created a few unique kaleidoscope designs for fabric!  I've taken photos of objects...like a wine bottle for example, and removed the background images, then edited the photo using PicMonkey.com to create a cool wine bottle image on a blue brick wall design for making fabric!

Here are some of my fabric designs on Kona Cotton...

 I realize it's hard to see the designs in the above pictures, but you can see them better if you go to my Spoonflower shop and see them there.
Not all the designs I'm showing here will be in my Spoonflower shop, because some of them will never be for sale.  But I just wanted to share with you the cool stuff you can do on fabric!

I have many other designs on Spoonflower that aren't for sale, simply for the fact that I haven't yet ordered a sampler of them.  Before Spoonflower will allow me (or anyone wanting to do this) to make my fabric designs for sale to the general public, I have to make the first purchase to see it in person...they require that I either order a swatch, a fat quarter, or BTY before it can be for sale to the public.

Below is an old auction poster I had printed onto a yard of Kona Cotton.

The poster was from when my boyfriend's parents sold their farm back in 1969.

I plan to make a memory quilt from this, along with some old photos.

This will be a fantastic way to preserve a piece of his family's history!

After getting written permission from the poster company to replicate one of their posters onto a quilt,

I had a Lake Mills Town & Country Days poster printed onto a yard of Kona Cotton as well.

With all the colors in the poster, it's going to be a fun quilt to make!

So...this is just a taste of what you and your imagination, with Spoonflower's help, can accomplish!
Now get out there and start creating some of your own fabric!  :)

A Little Catching Up....

I haven't had much time to Blog the past couple of months, so I'm falling behind on my posts.  Here's just a quick recap of some projects I've been working on and have worked on that I didn't get a chance to Blog about.

 Above: "Modern Christmas Trees" - Still needs a border yet before it can be quilted.

Below: Shadow Box Airplanes - Still needs a border, too, before it can be quilted.

 Completed Christmas Quilt

(Left and below)
This was a Star Point Quilt Guild group effort...

members of the guild made the "pinwheel" blocks,

I won the blocks at our 2012 Christmas party,

and I made this quilt using those blocks as the basis of the quilt.

Quilt binding was hand sewn on by Rona, our Guild President.

Quilt was completed in early 2014

 

Below: "Candy Store"A fantastic stash buster quilt to make!

This is just the quilt top. It's been sent over to Meandering Mary for long-arm quilting.

Pattern is from Fons & Porter's Love of Quiltingmagazine, May/June 2012 Issue.